Diesel Hawks thought of the day. 7/15/08

[jhay610]

As you have stated before in the thread, I think our shot at a deep playoff run trumps all of the other arguments in this trade. If we were a mid-level team around .500, or under-performing, the trade would have made more sense.

This was backward thinking from Babcock. Contenders are supposed to be buyers when it comes time to deal, not sellers. You're supposed to add veterans to help you get over the hump in that situation, not trade them for younger uncertains. We mortgaged a chance at a championship run for a player that we weren't even sure we could keep beyond half a season. On top of that, the guy was coming off a major knee surgery. Finally, we were trading away the icon of the franchise. When you do that, you better get a nice piece to build around for the future, because you're going to take such a big hit in terms of fan base perception.

Did we also throw that 1st in there? If that's true that cements this trade as THE bone-headed move of all-time for the Atlanta Hawks. Who knows, we may have a Chip banner hanging from the rafters if not for this deal. If nothing else, I believe we would have gotten the 2nd round monkey off of our backs.

Nique, one of the ambassadors of the Atlanta sports scene, having his best shot at a title undone by a guy who was nothing more than a fart in the wind here in ATL. That one will forever sting....

[EazyRoc]

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The Nique for Manning trade always gets overblown in my opinion. The Hawks had a better winning percentage after the trade.(look it up if you don't believe me)..As far as getting booted in the 2nd round,,well thats the same exact thing that happened to the Hawks with Nique. Thats as far as they ever got with him..

The killer part of the deal was Manning refusing to resign with the Hawks..

I don't put that much stock into the 2nd half being better than the first. That could just be ease of schedule... Similar to us this year. However, I believe that Nique would have carried us past Indy. He was used to making things happen when he was the one being keyed on.

I also think Babcock didn't consider the weight on the city. The City was tore up from that move. First time I remember a move effecting a whole city that strongly. And I remember some moves.

I remember Deion Sanders Leaving.

I remember Phil Neikro and Dale Murphy saying goodbye.

I remember The Atlanta Flames...!!! And the Chiefs!!!!

Still nothing was more devastating than Nique being traded.

I remember I was about 6 or 7 when they got rid of Deion. I was so disappointed, because Deion was definitely my favorite football player at the time. I refused to watch the Falcons for a quite few years after that. In fact, I didn't start watching them again until they got Mike Vick.

[Antmillennium]

A 35-year-old 'Nique was better than Danny Manning could ever be - under ANY circumstances.

[tmac13]

Nique's legacy in Atlanta has grown because of how he was traded. If he had stayed in Atlanta to finish out his career and went on the same slide he did as he played elsewhere he would not be the legend he is today. . Chances are the Hawks wouldn't have advanced any further in the playoffs that season than they ever did. We have never made it past the 2nd round with him or without him. The Indy playoff series was lost because Willis got injured and Indy was an up and coming team that was much better than their record indicated.

I traveled alot for work in those years and Nique was not thought of around the country as a superstar level player. He was 2nd tier behind guys like Bird, Magic, Jordan, Barkley and so on. He was known as a scorer only. He was viewed sort of like Carmelo Anthony is viewed now. .

[jhay610]

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Nique's legacy in Atlanta has grown because of how he was traded. If he had stayed in Atlanta to finish out his career and went on the same slide he did as he played elsewhere he would not be the legend he is today.

Ok Hawksquawk community. There is a blasphemer in our midst... You are way off base here...Nique set the city on fire for the Hawks and he would've always been loved here, even if he had never come back from the achilles injury...his legacy was set in stone long before that. He is THE atlanta hawk and always was.

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Chances are the Hawks wouldn't have advanced any further in the playoffs that season than they ever did.

says you. no way of possibly knowing.

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We have never made it past the 2nd round with him or without him.

Mostly because we ran into some great teams. No Jordan/Bird/Pistons juggernauts that year means we had a great shot at doing it that year.

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The Indy playoff series was lost because Willis got injured and Indy was an up and coming team that was much better than their record indicated.

Yeah that, + this: Danny Manning

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I traveled alot for work in those years

and Nique was not thought of around the country as a superstar level player. He was 2nd tier behind guys like Bird, Magic, Jordan, Barkley and so on. He was known as a scorer only. He was viewed sort of like Carmelo Anthony is viewed now. .

Maybe that's when you lost touch with the rest of the city then....

[Dejay]

For me, it was easily the Nique for Manning deal. As a season ticket holder that year, it absolutely hurt me to the core. Now don't get me wrong; if the team was 26-25 at the time and a team in contention needed a final piece, you make the deal and start rebuilding, while giving your franchise guy a chance to get his ring (see Ray Bourque with the Avalanche). But he had a team that was leading the East with no Bird, no MJ, and no Isiah waiting on the other side. The fact they they decided in their infinite wisdom to look to the future in a potential championship year when they should've been going after another shooter to go with Ehlo off the bench and offset Augmon's lack of range was asinine to the nth degree. The fact that they traded our franchise guy for someone who couldn't get off the tarmac at the airport before spouting off about Atlanta not being one of his free agent destinations still makes my blood boil.

That's NOT how you treat a guy who carried your franchise on his back when the Braves were LOSING 95+ a year and the Falcons had guys like you and me on their roster to play Montana's 49ers in a dreary, half-empty, run-down Fulton-County Stadium. When you treat your franchise guy who never, EVER had a run-in with the law, never been suspended by the team, never publicly whined about not getting the help that Isiah, Bird, and MJ had when Lord know he could have (and maybe SHOULD HAVE) as if he was the 10th guy in the rotation, it has a nasty way of biting you on the rear end. And the fact that we can list the impact free agents who's come here since by name (Deke, Ellis??, JJ) speaks volumes about what other players thought about this deal, let alone the organization as a whole, back then.

That deal made me turn my season tickets in.....

[Diesel]

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Nique's legacy in Atlanta has grown because of how he was traded.

If he had stayed in Atlanta to finish out his career and went on the same slide he did as he played elsewhere he would not be the legend he is today. . Chances are the Hawks wouldn't have advanced any further in the playoffs that season than they ever did. We have never made it past the 2nd round with him or without him. The Indy playoff series was lost because Willis got injured and Indy was an up and coming team that was much better than their record indicated.

I traveled alot for work in those years and Nique was not thought of around the country as a superstar level player. He was 2nd tier behind guys like Bird, Magic, Jordan, Barkley and so on. He was known as a scorer only. He was viewed sort of like Carmelo Anthony is viewed now. .

When you consider the Bird vs. Nique series... The Isiah vs. Nique Series. The Jordan vs. Nique Series... You have to be out your mind if you think that Nique's popularity is due to him being traded. He was already a future allstar who made this franchise what it was before he was traded. Let's not fool ourselves. Atlanta was OK, but without Nique, Atlanta was nothing special. You do realize that we were that close to knocking off the mighty Celtics in 88 and it was all Nique.

[tmac13]

The common denominator in all those series was the Hawks lost. We never even made it to a conference finals. Nique holds a great deal of respect in Atlanta, but he was never overly respected on a national level.. Thats the reason he was left off the 50 greatest list. I can still remember a Charles Barkley quote back when he was with the Sixers before a Philly/Atlanta game saying that any team with Nique would never win anything. That is how he was perceived nationally as opposed to his star status here.

[DrReality]

I think trading Nique blows hardest but getting back the jailbird JR is the same on the receiving end.

[Antmillennium]

First of all, Barkley never won anything either. Second, Barkley himself said that it was a travesty that 'Nique wasn't on the 50 Greatest list. I believe Larry Bird said the same thing as well. I'm pretty sure that if you ask his peers (Jordan, Bird, Magic, and etc...), they'd probably all tell you that 'Nique was one of the great players in NBA history.